Kemba Walker steps up as vocal leader

STORRS -- With as many as seven freshmen on its roster and three of its top four scorers from a year ago now elsewhere, the UConn men's basketball team will need someone to step up and provide vocal leadership this season.

On Wednesday afternoon, Kemba Walker did just that. Literally.

Just prior to the start of the annual Husky Run outside Gampel Pavilion, Walker stepped up on a small brick wall and addressed the crowd of about 70 fans and fellow runners.

"On behalf of the team," Walker shouted, "thank you for coming out and doing the Husky Run with us!"

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A small gesture of gratitude, to be sure. Still, it was rather unique.

"By standing up and welcoming everybody, we haven't had a guy do that since I've been here," said George Blaney, now his 10th year as UConn's associate head coach. "I like where we're going from a leadership point of view."

Of course, Walker's emergence as a team leader began long before Wednesday. He tried at times last season, but as a sophomore with three starting seniors (Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Gavin Edwards) on the roster, his voice was sometimes stifled.

Now, this is very much Kemba Walker's team.

"I'm just trying to establish my leadership role with this team," said Walker. "We just basically do everything with each other. Everything is one. That's basically it. We have meetings when things go wrong, just little things."

That wasn't always the case last season. As talented as Dyson, Robinson and Edwards could be, leadership wasn't exactly their forte.

"We wanted everybody to be together, more than we were last year," said guard Donnell Beverly, one of just two seniors on this year's roster. "We had a good group of guys last year, but we want to make sure everybody's on the same page, doing the same things at the same time. Everybody loves being around each other. That's the great part of this team. Last year, someone would miss a lift or a workout -- little things like that make a difference."

Alongside Walker, Beverly has emerged as a true leader, as well. When talking about the team's leaders, Blaney rarely mentions Walker without giving a nod to Beverly, as well.

"Kemba and Donnell really have taken to the leadership role of this team as well as anybody since I've been here," Blaney said. "They've kept this group together. They lift together, they play together as often as possible."

Still, Beverly has never started a game in his UConn career, and it's possible he never will. He averaged just 1.6 points in less than 10 minutes per game a year ago.

It's Walker who is the face of the franchise, if you will, and it is on his coat tails this team will ride if it hopes to get back to the NCAA tournament after a year's absence.

"It's nice," noted director of basketball administration Glen Miller, "when your best player is also a great person."

RIM RATTLINGS

n Jim Calhoun wasn't at Wednesday's event and isn't likely to be at Friday's Late Night Madness festivities. Rather, he'll be in Indianapolis, meeting before the NCAA committee on infractions in regard to the allegations of eight major recruiting violations by the UConn program.

Calhoun, who is expected to be at the Huskies' first full practice on Saturday morning, has been handling the NCAA investigation as well as possible, according to Blaney.

"Jim is always good about putting things in boxes and getting himself in a particular start of mind, so he can concentrate on what he needs to concentrate on at that particular time," Blaney said. "It's taken up a lot of his time thinking about it, for sure. But he's as upbeat as ever about this team. He loves leaders, loves when guys step up and be leaders. And Kemba and Donnell have done that as well as anyone since I've been here."

n Walk-on Kyle Bailey was the first UConn player to cross the finish line at the Husky Run, with a time of 21:15. Among scholarship players, Tyler Olander was first in 21:15, followed closely by Jamal Coombs-McDaniel in 21:22. Rounding out the finishers: Shabazz Napier (21:58), Alex Oriakhi (22:10), Michael Bradley (22:22), Charles Okwandu (22:28), Roscoe Smith (22:28), Walker (23:44), Niels Giffey (23:44) and Jeremy Lamb (23:44).

n Beverly (hip surgery) didn't run, but expects to be able to practice on Saturday.